What Is Culturally Relevant Pedagogy

Teachers have always been the most important part of education. However, the way that teachers interact with their students has changed over time. In the past, educators were known as "sages on the stage" who sat at the front of their classrooms and taught from their own experiences. Today, culturally relevant pedagogy is a philosophy that focuses on making schooling more personal for students so that they can better engage with what they are learning about. This writing will explain what culturally relevant pedagogy is all about and why it's important for teachers (and schools) today.

Culturally relevant pedagogy is a teaching and learning philosophy. It’s all about helping students learn in ways that are relevant to their lives. It’s about making the classroom experience meaningful for them, so they can succeed in it and beyond it.

The best way to think about culturally relevant pedagogy is as a way of thinking about how we teach and learn together so that everyone can be successful—even if you don’t look like me or come from my world view or value system, even if none of these things seem familiar at first glance.

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Context, in the simplest sense, is the environment in which something happens. It includes where you are and when you are there; who you are and how they feel about their place in the world; what is happening around us, including our own personal experiences.

Context means everything: it's a concept that can be applied to any piece of information or idea we learn.

In some cases it may just be one aspect among many—the context of your learning might include whether or not someone else has already taught this information before (and if so did they do a good job?). Or perhaps there's some special context related to why this particular knowledge matters so much right now—like maybe a friend told you about an upcoming exam on this topic? In other cases though such as when we're learning math concepts like addition or subtraction we don't have time for all those extra details because our focus needs to remain singularly focused on finding out how many groups each number represents--so instead we'll just say "add two" without worrying too much about where these numbers came from originally.

Culturally relevant pedagogy helps students engage with the education system. In a nutshell, the term “culturally relevant pedagogy” refers to teaching methods that are sensitive to students' racial, ethnic, or cultural backgrounds. In this way, culturally relevant pedagogy is similar to other educational approaches whose goal is to help students connect with their material by relating it back to their own experiences and beliefs.

In addition—and perhaps most importantly—culturally relevant pedagogy has the potential for empowering students by helping them think critically about the education system at large and encouraging them to make change within it. For example: if you're teaching an American history course on slavery in America (a subject matter that obviously resonates with many black Americans), using a culturally relevant approach ensures that your classroom environment fosters an atmosphere of mutual respect and understanding between teacher and student instead of one where only one side feels comfortable expressing their opinions freely because they feel like they might be judged negatively if they speak up too much (or even at all).

Education is about more than just school. If you're a teacher, it's important to realize that education is not limited to school. In fact, the best way for students to learn is often outside of the classroom—in museums and libraries and parks. If you're a student in my class, I will teach you how to connect with your community through these places.

I'll show you how museums can be used as places of learning and reflection on current events; how libraries can provide access to books that may not otherwise be available; and how parks are meant for recreation but also serve as beautiful spaces where we can relax or reflect on our lives. We'll use these resources together so that both teachers and students can become culturally relevant educators within their school communities while maintaining their own cultural identities.

Teachers no longer have to be always be the "sage on the stage." When it comes to culturally relevant pedagogy, teachers work as partners in their students' educations and not as authorities. They must also be aware of their own biases and how they may affect their students with different cultures and backgrounds. Teachers must also understand their own cultures so that they can better understand how these beliefs might influence their teaching methods.

Teachers are partners in their students' educations. When you think of a teacher, it's easy to imagine that person as an authority figure standing in front of a classroom with his or her legs spread apart and hands behind their back. Their face is stern, they ask questions and expect answers. They are waiting for students to learn from them—not the other way around. But culturally relevant pedagogy changes all that by turning teachers into partners with their students rather than just lecturers giving orders.

Now that’s not to say that good teachers don’t already do this—they do! But many times, students feel disengaged from their education because they can't relate it back to something important in their lives or communities. Teachers help bridge this gap by teaching about topics like social justice in history classes; how agriculture influences culture through science labs; how language shapes our thoughts during writing exercises; and how money impacts society when discussing civics issues like taxation policies (among others).

As you can see, culturally relevant pedagogy is a teaching philosophy that puts the student at the center of the learning process. It motivates students by encouraging them to connect with their own experiences and explore new possibilities. This approach is especially important in today’s society, where we have so many resources available online and offline that allow us to explore our identities more deeply than ever before.